


Old Ghosts

by sariane



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Agents of SHIELD episode: s01e21 Ragtag spoilers, Coda, Gen, Howling Commandos - Freeform, Missing Scene, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, kinda hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-12
Updated: 2014-05-12
Packaged: 2018-01-24 12:45:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1605677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sariane/pseuds/sariane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agent Triplett runs into a familiar face while he's meeting a contact.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for a prompt [on my tumblr](http://sarriane.tumblr.com/post/85083693005):  
> [peasantwitch](http://peasantwitch.tumblr.com/): Do you watch MAoS? If so, then I would love to see Bucky meet Tripp, even if by accident. Because, Howling Commandos!
> 
> I love this prompt. :) I was actually thinking about writing something like this after we found out Trip’s grandpa was a Howling Commando (Personally I’m a fan of the rumor that Peggy is also in Triplett’s family history because CARTER FAMILY REUNIONS, but I assumed they meant Gabe Jones and alluded to that in this fic.).
> 
> This is set in the middle of Agents of SHIELD episode 21, "Ragtag," but only contains light spoilers. It’s also set post-Cap 2 and contains spoilers for that movie. It probably won't make sense unless you've seen Cap 2, honestly.
> 
> Warnings:  
> \- allusions to Bucky's mental state after the events of CA: TWS

Trip sits at a table outside the meeting place May had chosen – a Starbucks in the middle of the city, far enough away from their hotel that they couldn’t be tracked back there so easily. He glances around the street and the tables outside the coffee shop while feigning taking a sip from his over-expensive coffee. The contact is nowhere in sight, but he’s five minutes early.

There’s nobody suspicious, but he cases the place again, just to be sure. Tripp eyes up the guy sitting at the adjacent table. He’s holding onto his coffee with both hands like he’s cupping it for warmth, even though it’s gotta be at least eighty degrees outside. The man is bent over the table, wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie, his long dark hair hiding half of his face from –

“Bucky Barnes?” Trip says aloud before he realizes what he’s saying. Barnes was a Howling Commando; he’s heard a million stories, seen the newsreels again and again, looked at pictures while his grandfather talked his ear off about the guy. He’d know that face anywhere.

Bucky Barnes, Captain Rogers’ best friend.

The man startles like a stray cat. He jumps to his feet and glares up at Trip like he’s about to dive for him, his hand twitched towards a knife he must have hidden. Trip reaches for his gun, but something stops him. Maybe it’s the wild look in the man’s eyes.

“Hey,” Trip says, raising his hands slowly and setting them on the table where the guy can see them. “I’m just here to see a guy about a plane. No worries, man.”

The Bucky lookalike doesn’t move an inch, but he blinks, staring at Trip like he knows him.

“You…” he starts, tilting his head at Trip. “You look familiar.”

“So do you,” Trip says lightly. “Name’s Antoine Triplett,” he smiles. “But, if you are who I think you are, you would’ve known my grandpa. Gabe Jones. He was a Howling Commando.”

“He knew Captain America,” the man says slowly.

“Never shut up about him,” Trip laughs, surprised to find that it isn’t forced. “Always telling stories about his glory days with Cap and the Commandos.”

Trip has a lot of questions about this guy; who he is, why he looks like Bucky Barnes, why he seems to be on the run. But, hey, maybe he _is_ Bucky Barnes. Hell, _Captain America_ came back from the dead – so did Coulson. It isn’t the weirdest thing Trip has heard about since he joined SHIELD.

“Could you…” Barnes trails off, eyes darting across the busy tables outside the Starbucks. He turns back to Trip and looks him in the eye. “You called me Barnes,” he says roughly. “You know about him. Could you tell me about him? And Captain America?”

“Yeah,” Trip nods, purposely not looking away, down at his watch, or reaching for his cell phone to call Coulson, even though he wants to. Barnes cautiously sits across from him at the table.

“Sure, I have more stories than you’d want to hear,” Trip sends Barnes a wry smile. “Barnes was Cap’s right hand man. Grandpa used to say, the way Barnes looked after Rogers, if the Axis had personally declared war on Captain America, the war would’ve been over a lot sooner.”

Trip tells the Barnes-lookalike everything he can remember about Bucky and Cap, stories he could probably find on the Internet or in biographies, and a few more that never quite made it into the Commandos’ interviews. The man drinks it all in, unlike the coffee he’s ignoring, listening with the same impassive look on his face. Trip knows it’s gotta be Barnes, now, but he doesn’t ask.

The guy looks like he needs something – to hear this, maybe. Trip figures his grandpa would want him to tell these stories, even if the guy isn’t really Bucky Barnes. He wouldn’t be the first to find solace in old stories about the Howling Commandos and Captain America.

“Agent Triplett?” he hears, nearly twenty minutes after he’s began his stories. Trip looks up at the blonde woman standing beside him with crossed arms. He hadn’t even noticed her, lost in his story.

“Colonel Danvers?” Trip asks. She nods with a smile.

Trip glances back over at Barnes, but the man is gone. He’s left nothing behind, no coffee cup, no footsteps, not even the flash of a dark hoodie disappearing into the crowd. Trip searches with a trained eye, but he doesn’t expect to see anything. Barnes has vanished without a trace – like a ghost.

“Who were you talking to?” Danvers says, taking the vacated seat across from Trip. “Did I interrupt something?”

“Nah,” Trip says, looking back at her. “I just think he needed the company.”

Danvers nods. “So,” she says, lowering her voice, “I hear May is calling in a favor?”

“Yeah,” Trip chuckles, wondering how big of a favor she owes May. “We need a plane.”

 

_Fin._


End file.
